The MTA said Wednesday that it might wind up with a $950 million bill that’s not covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or by MTA’s insurance, Russianoff said.

“That’s $62 million in debt service for 30 years. In my mind, the burden falls on the riding public,” he said.

Superstorm Sandy cost the MTA an estimated $5 billion in lost revenue and damage, including tens of millions of dollars in devastation to Metro-North Railroad, the agency said Wednesday.

The MTA’s itemized list of damage in need of costly repair includes $10 million to fortify the Hudson Line shoreline, $1.8 million to replace train cars for its lines west of the Hudson and $1 million to restore the Haverstraw Ferry landing.

Employee overtime and lost fare and toll revenue from the storm cost the MTA $268 million.

Despite the high cost of the storm, MTA officials said Wednesday that riders won’t foot the bill or face service cuts. There also are no plans to raise the scheduled fare increases in March because of the storm. The agency expects its insurance carriers and FEMA to pick up the lion’s share of the tab.

The MTA is working to get as much relief from FEMA as possible, Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said, and the agency will seek additional state aid and other sources of federal money. Despite that help, the MTA may have to cover remaining costs of $950 million, which would require the agency to borrow money that will start being repaid in 2016, Anders said.

Though the MTA is counting on significant FEMA and insurance payments, that money won’t come right away. To fund immediate repairs, on Wednesday the MTA board approved borrowing up to $4.8 billion to be repaid with insurance and FEMA reimbursements.

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The damage to Metro-North is part of the $4.75 billion the MTA expects to spend to rebuild infrastructure across its system.

“We lost a lot of substations and signal equipment. We had tremendous amount of tree damage,” Anders said. “We had stations and tracks underwater.”

Meanwhile, Sandy-related costs continue to mount a month after the storm. Though normal Metro-North service is running again, the railroad is faced with persistent problems, especially along the Hudson Line.

The river rose more than 10 feet during Sandy and put much of the line underwater. Flooding at the Tarrytown station building was so severe, the waiting area’s oak benches were floating in several feet of water after the storm.

The building was dried out, but mold has been found behind the station walls, Anders said. The station was closed Monday for emergency mold remediation, and it’s unclear when it will reopen, she said.

The railroad’s Sandy expenses likely will make it one of the system’s costliest storms. . Last year, Tropical Storm Irene cost Metro-North $48 million and shut the Port Jervis Line for several months.

Before Sandy hit, the MTA was already in a precarious financial situation, which officials have attributed to soaring energy and employee and retiree health-care costs and other “nondiscretionary” costs. Because of that, the MTA has systemwide toll and fare increases planned for March and again in 2015. Metro-North riders face ticket price increases up to roughly 9 percent.